iPad 3G gets torn down


Desperate to see what’s under the smooth exterior of your new iPad 3G but don’t want to crack it open and void the warranty? Fear not, friend. iFixit has done the dirty work (very cleanly, I might add) and taken the iPod touch jumbo edition to pieces. There aren’t a lot of surprises, but hey, it’s Saturday afternoon and you want to see the guts of an expensive gadget. Get another cup of coffee.

The internals really are very similar to the vanilla iPad’s — the main difference is the communications board, sporting all the fun 3G elements and the A-GPS module. The chips and parts are listed in the teardown if you’re thinking of tinkering. Personally, I wonder whether a modified Wi-Fi antenna might be a worthwhile modification.

And don’t forget that iFixit now has a whole other reason for being. Contribute if you can.